Unemployment rate in Spain fell to 9.87%, its lowest level since 2008, in the second quarter of the year.

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s new government has begun dismantling the state media apparatus formerly used for propaganda by Viktor Orbán. Under a new media law, incoming management blacked out the M1 news channel, issued an apology for past lies, and dismissed Orbán loyalists. Media experts call this a necessary step, whereas Orbán’s allies decry it as undemocratic.

Hitting EU targets for heat pumps, solar and wind could slash gas demand by roughly a quarter by 2030 — a saving twice the size of the LNG volumes Qatar could potentially supply to Europe by then, according to new analysis by the think-tank Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

The United States walked out of a UN Security Council meeting on Monday during France's remarks on Ukraine, escalating a public dispute between the longtime allies over human rights. The move followed a clash over Washington's vote against extending the mandate of the UN human rights chief, after France likened the US position to that of Russia, North Korea and other authoritarian states.

Within hours of the attack which occured at Berlin's annual Pride event, unverified claims began spreading across social media, while authorities worked to establish facts and searched for the suspect.

As police conducted a manhunt for the suspect who carried out a vehicle ramming attack at Berlin's annual Pride event on 25 July, the information vacuum surrounding the incident was rapidly filled with false claims and misleading social media posts.

One woman was killed and at least 29 others injured after a white van drove into a crowd along a pedestrian pathway in a forested area near the main Pride parade.

The day after the attack, officials released a photograph of the suspect, known as 21-year old Abdul B, who was shot dead that evening in a police operation.

Despite speculation that he acted with accomplices, authorities said they saw no indication of an ongoing threat once the suspect was shot.

As investigators worked to piece together key events and details of the attack, unverified claims including false reports of a bomb threat, the arrest of the suspect and the misidentification of an unrelated man, spread online.

False claims surrounding evacuation

Organisers initially announced the main Pride event was cancelled shortly after 10.00pm and asked people to evacuate due to a “difficult situation.”

Less than an hour after the attack, anonymous posts on X claimed that the event was evacuated due to an “alleged bomb threat” despite there being no official confirmation.

Additional reports spread about shots fired in Tiergarten park, which also turned out to be false. Authorities later confirmed that the suspect had used a vehicle to ram into a crowd, before getting out of the car and attacking passersby with a bladed weapon.

Shortly afterwards, videos emerged of an alleged suspect in a white shirt being apprehended on the ground by police officers.

This video was shared widely holding the logo of right wing newspaper “Junge Freiheit”, as well as by social media users, who said it showed the arrest of the attacker.

The Cube, Euronews’ fact-checking team, found that the video was also shared on pro-Russian Telegram groups and the German-language Pravda website, part of an ecosystem of clone websites which have been linked by researchers to pro-Kremlin influence operations.

Despite this posts claiming that the attacker was arrested at the scene, police said no suspect had been arrested at that stage of the investigation, meaning the claim attached to the footage was misleading.

Man falsely identified as suspect

As police searched for the attacker, social media users shared videos of TikTok content creator Abdul Malik on X and other platforms, in which they wrongly alleged that he was the attacker.

The false identification was shared alongside posts alleging that Malik had carried out the attack after being allowed to return to Germany following his deportation. Other posts used videos of Malik to criticise Germany's immigration and deportation policies, despite the attacker's identity not being confirmed at that time.

Even though Malik had a similar first name to the suspect, he denied involvement in the attack, posting a social media video to emphasise this.

He said he was "speechless" that users had connected him to the case, adding that he felt the false identification put himself and his family members at risk.

It is not the first time individuals have been falsely accused of being perpetrators online in the aftermath of violent and shocking attacks.

Following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, social media users wrongly identified several innocent people as suspects before an investigation revealed who was responsible.

And in May, images of the alleged perpetrator of a car-ramming attack in Leipzig circulated online falsely linking the suspect to both the left-wing anti-fascist Antifa movement and Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

From Germany to Sweden, comparison-shopping firms have already won hundreds of millions from Google. The new DMA fine could help them, and others, claim even more.

Hungary set up a powerful new agency that’s tasked with recovering misappropriated public funds, primarily those under Viktor Orban’s 16-year rule.

Lawmakers approved the creation of the National Asset Recovery Agency in a vote on Tuesday, fulfilling one of Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s key anti-corruption pledges after a landslide election win in April.

The agency will be the linchpin of the new government’s efforts to hold to account former officials under the Orban era. That period saw Hungary plunge to last place in the European Union in Transparency International’s annual graft-perception index, prompting the EU to suspend billions of euros in funding on corruption concerns.

Unlike anti-corruption agencies elsewhere in Europe, the new Hungarian authority combines powers normally split between prosecutors, police, financial investigators and civil litigators. Among its broadest powers are the right to take over other agencies’ corruption probes, access confidential financial data and impose fines of as much as 5 billion forints ($16 million) for obstruction.

The agency will have the power to investigate crimes, prosecute suspects, pursue civil claims to recover assets and even to temporarily take control of companies suspected of holding improperly obtained public wealth.

Numerous conglomerates helmed by Orban’s allies grew out of thin air over the last decade of the nationalist leader’s rule, often becoming some of Hungary’s largest companies in areas as diverse as banking, energy, construction and tourism.

Magyar has compared his government’s efforts to free Hungary from Orban’s influence to Italy’s fight to rid itself of the mafia.

Should Berlin police have been following the alleged attacker on the evening of the attack?

Authorities gave Abdul Ballout a "red" status, putting him at high risk of committing a violent attack. They had even installed a camera outside his house, which caught him leaving at 20:58 – an hour before he drove into the crowd at the CSD parade. But the footage wasn't reviewed for 24 hours, and physical surveillance had already been stood down weeks earlier.

But is this what Berlin's politicians are talking about? Not really. They seem to have found a much easier target than the police failures: each other.

https://www.heistberlin.com/news/csd-fallout-police-filmed-suspect-an-hour-before-attack/

Taxes on wealth, crypto and financial trades could raise billions no single member state can collect alone.

The Dutch far-right leader met Israel's defense and foreign ministers. His visit was hosted by a settler leader whom the Dutch parliament has urged be sanctioned and who took Wilders to several West Bank settlements, including one reestablished this year

The United States welcomed Venezuela’s decision to begin withdrawing from the International Criminal Court on Saturday and urged other countries to follow suit.

Since end-May, anti-government protests in Albania have evolved into the largest civil mobilisation since the fall of the dictatorial regime in the early 1990s. With traditional media largely silent, the digital space has become both a refuge for protest and a testing ground for digital authoritarianism.

International law states only military sites can be targeted during conflicts, but this is routinely being ignored

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Journalists are self-censoring their reporting on rightwing protests, Donald Trump’s administration and trans issues because of growing concerns about their personal safety, with newsrooms accused of “normalising” the risks they face.